The Seattle Guard Defends Its Own
When a prominent citizen attempted to pressure a local guard member into resigning his post over a personal grudge, his neighbors staged an intervention.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Trouble has developed in the ranks of the Seattle Guard. It was learned that V. A. Rice, a pressman employed by Berry & Halahan, a wholesale tobacco company, was threatened with discharge by Berry, unless he resigned from the Seattle Guards. It is understood that Berry made this threat because Rice refused to grant him a special favor. Rice's superior, his employer, demanded that he resign from the Guard or be discharged, stating that he knew the other men in the factory, and that he should have given at least a day's notice. A number of prominent citizens, hearing of Berry's action, became very indignant. They went in a body to the office of Berry & Halahan, and offered to provide a substitute for him. Rice has not as yet resigned, and Berry, who discovered that the affair had become public and was being discussed, will try to harm him. From present indications, it is likely that a sympathy boycott will be started against the firm. Berry Halahan has just lost a lot of money by Rice's refusal to go to Seattle. Rice was one of the best pressmen the company had, and Captain Fife says he is an efficient member and if necessary will give him an honorable discharge from the service.
“A number of prominent citizens, hearing of Berry's action, became very indignant. They went in a body to the office of Berry & Halahan, and offered to provide a substitute for him.”
This 1889 incident echoes the modern tension between personal workplace politics and the autonomy of civil service. While the mechanisms of 'sympathy boycotts' have evolved, the community's swift mobilization to protect a worker from coercive employer overreach remains a distinct feature of Seattle's labor-conscious culture.
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